But Sherman knew the best decision he could make — for his hometown and for himself — was to leave the Los Angeles area. That’s why the Seahawks’ fifth-round draft pick chose to attend Stanford instead.

“I’m from Compton, and it’s hard for people to understand that you can be an athlete and have high academic standards and achieve high academic things,” said Sherman, who graduated from Dominguez High School. “So I really wanted to make that known to people that you can go to Stanford from Compton.”

After five years, a position change and a degree in Communication from the prestigious school, Sherman and Carroll are finally together in the same organization, something Sherman said felt like fate based on how the universe seems to keep placing the two next to each other.

There are already a number of ties between the two. Carroll told Sherman when he was in high school that he would make an ideal lock-down corner as a Trojan. Even though he wound up choosing Stanford, Sherman liked that idea so much that he created an email account under the name “lockdown2006,” which remains his primary email address to this day.

(Perhaps “lockout2011” would be a more apt moniker now.)

Then as a sophomore in 2007, Sherman caught a crucial 4th-down pass that helped Stanford to its monumental upset of Carroll’s Trojans at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

And when Sherman flew to Mobile, Ala., earlier this year for the Senior Bowl, guess who was on the same plane?

“We talked a little bit then, and here we are,” Sherman said.

Sherman was a receiver during his first three years at Stanford before moving to cornerback as a senior, a move he made partially because it would make him a better NFL prospect, and also because he simply has an affinity for playing defense.

His detailed explanation of the latter put his Stanford education on display.

“You can be involved in defense, and if no receiver catches the ball on your side of the field, that’s a great day for a corner,” Sherman said. “On the offensive side of the ball, a receiver can be the greatest receiver in the world, but factors such as line play, or quarterback play, or even zone defense can stop a receiver from making any impact on the game, and at corner it’s way different.”

His specialty, he says, is press coverage, which makes sense for his size (6-foot-3, 195 pounds). And he says that’s what Carroll liked about him — even after all these years.

“That’s what he preached to me on the phone,” Sherman said. “That is one of my biggest strengths. I can play press and play man. I’m good in the red zone against bigger receivers, smaller receivers.”

Sherman’s experience at corner is obviously lacking, a fact he admits when asked about his weaknesses. He’d like to improve his footwork, and knows he still has much to learn about the nuances of playing cornerback in the NFL.

As for the Seahawks’ secondary, the team has corners Marcus Trufant, Kennard Cox and Walter Thurmond under contract for next season, and also drafted Clemson cornerback Byron Maxwell in the sixth round. That seems to make it all the more likely that the team won’t re-sign starting cornerback Kelly Jennings, who is an impending free agent.

Sherman’s intelligence and size — and Carroll’s press scheme — bode well for the rookie-to-be.

Safe to say his Stanford decision worked out.

“I think I was only the second person from my school ever to go, and the first athlete,” Sherman said. “And I think I really did what I set out to do.”